Volunteering with a personal or professional focus

Her work involves supporting the charity’s staff to make sure that their activities are helping to achieve their goals, for example around funding, research, and campaigning. She is still interested in finding a trustee role, but has found her experience on the committee to be really worthwhile. It has given her the chance to apply some of her professional knowledge and experience, as well as develop new skills, and be part of something that she’s passionate about. 

Being part of the committee has given her the opportunity to develop her confidence, and get more experience of strategic planning, as well as working across nations, which has been useful in her current role working with PolicyWISE within The Open University. It has even given her ideas of ways of working and initiatives that could be implemented in her own team. 

Catherine’s volunteering doesn’t come with a significant time commitment; she estimates she spends a couple of hours every couple of months preparing for and attending meetings, with some additional activities on an ad hoc basis. 

The main motivation for Catherine is her interest in mental health. Her advice to anyone thinking about volunteering? “It’s about having that willingness to carve out even just a little bit of your time to go to volunteer on a topic that you’re really passionate about, because if you’re not passionate about it, you won’t do it.” 

She says, “If you feel like your life isn’t fully fulfilled, then look for volunteering opportunities. Because, actually, what pays the rent may not fulfil you completely; there are other ways of doing that and ways to support people who are doing really, really good work. Everybody has got skills they can give to a good cause, whether it’s digging an allotment or being on a committee!” 

Michelle describes the kind of volunteering she has taken on as “patient voice or user experience”; she has helped Bliss to refine and develop its services by taking part in focus groups, responding to surveys, and allowing her family’s story to be shared to support the charity’s advocacy work. With Tommy’s, she has been providing parent voice on a panel to support the charity as it works to set up a research centre for premature birth. 

Although Michelle’s daughter, Audrey, is now four years old, Michelle is keen to carry on this work to try to improve services for people going through the same experience. She also supports the neonatal unit at the University Hospital of Wales, where Audrey received care after she was born, and says that this comes from a feeling of deep personal connection to the hospital and a sense that their experience on the neonatal unit is part of their identity as a family. 

Public service volunteering isn’t new to Michelle, though, having worked in the voluntary sector before her current job at The Open University in Wales, and been both a school governor and a charity trustee in the past. She thinks the more of that kind of activity you do, the more you learn, the more you grow in confidence, and the easier it becomes. 

Michelle’s work with these charities doesn’t require a heavy time commitment – it’s flexible and gives her the option to choose to engage with things as and when she can. “That’s probably why I chose it!”, she concedes. After all, she does have a four-year-old in the house. 

Her advice to anyone thinking of taking part in similar volunteering? “Your perspective, your voice, and your experience are valid and valuable, and you should use them. Don’t feel like you don’t have anything to contribute because you definitely do.” 

So, his first step was to send a call out on a mailing list for LGBTQ+ colleagues to gauge the appetite for such a group. “I essentially had my hand bitten off in terms of enthusiasm levels!”, he said. Although he has worked with other colleagues to set it up, Amo has been the driving force behind getting the group up and running. There are now almost 50 members across the University, who are in all kind teams, roles, and locations. 

The group holds regular online meet-ups where colleagues can come together, learn from each other, share good news, ask questions, and support each other. Amo has even been able to support colleagues who are not out at work, or who are questioning their gender identity, by providing a confidential listening ear and sharing his own experience. 

Although the time commitment required for Amo’s work with the network is relatively low, the emotional input required of him is high. He feels a keen responsibility to the group’s members, and potential members, and takes that responsibility seriously. In return, he has built his own confidence and has had the opportunity to build connections and learn more about decision-making processes within the University. 

His advice to anyone thinking of getting involved with similar initiatives? “Find out what’s involved before you rule yourself out. It may be that you have made an incorrect assumption about what it’s actually like. Think about your capacity and speak to other people who are doing similar stuff to find out more.” 

Even more than that, she says that her various experiences over the years have taught her how to commit to a regular routine and how to be responsible for herself and for others, as well as having helped her manage and maintain her own sense of wellbeing over the years. 

It’s almost as though one volunteering experience has led to the next for Sarah, with each one giving her the opportunity to push herself a little further and learn a little more each time. “All of these things – they’re sort of like little extra threads that you weave together through your skills and your experiences”. 

Her work with Children in Wales as a volunteer policy adviser, for example, was a “natural option” because it was linked to her academic background, and she found it hugely rewarding because it gave her the change to “really start to shape the bigger frameworks that support the things that happen in our society. It was a nice bridge between different organisations, the academic context, and the third sector context.” 

Sarah’s doctoral thesis was on children’s rights and her work for The Open University now involves producing resources around children’s rights, among other things. “All of these things have been influenced by the various volunteering roles that I’ve had over the years”, she says. 

Sarah estimates that she spends a few hours every week on volunteering activity, but this can be flexible. “The trick is to find the right thing that can fit into your life”, Sarah says. 

Sarah’s advice to anyone thinking of volunteering? “Do it. Don’t be afraid of all the reasons why you think it wouldn’t work. You can always find ways to make it work and make it valuable, once you’re working with people. Too many people worry about doing things absolutely perfectly or having to commit bucketloads of time, but you can make it work and organisations will help you. So do it!” 

Stephen’s first child was stillborn. It was that loss which made him want to help people who had experienced a similar loss. Although his volunteering can be emotionally draining, Stephen still says he gets a huge sense of satisfaction from it.